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Mindful Breathing and Difficult Emotions
July 15, 2011, Still Water Meditation Hall, Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France, during the second week of the annual Summer Opening Retreat. Thich Nhat Hanh continues the teaching on mindfulness of breathing, summarizing the first eight steps of the Sutra on Mindful Breathing: the first four help us take care of our body, and with the fifth we touch the realm of feelings. He teaches on dealing with difficult emotions, including how we can help those loved ones who feel they need to commit suicide because of an emotion. Belly breathing—focus on your in-breath and out-breath, following the rise of the abdomen—helps us remember that emotions are impermanent; we can have peace, solidity, and freedom.
From the realm of body and feelings, we come to the ninth exercise, the realm of the mental formations. In the Buddhist tradition there are 51 mental formations. Thay explains the relationship between mind consciousness and store consciousness, the concept of seeds (bija), and the practice of selective watering. He tells the story of a couple whose love is revitalized by watering good seeds; the ninth exercise is about gladdening the mind. He concludes with the four practices of Right Diligence: do not allow negative seeds to become a mental formation; if they do, do not let them stay too long, yet do not suppress them; recognize and touch good seeds to bring them up, and keep the good seeds present as long as you can.
Before the talk, Thay offers a 30-minute introduction to chanting Namo’valokiteshvaraya, sharing the three steps of contemplation while listening to the bodhisattva’s name: 1) touching compassion in oneself, 2) touching compassion in those around us, 3) touching compassion in all beings. The introduction is followed by chanting by the Plum Village Monastics.
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